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Doubts raised over Melbourne airport scare

Heather EwartUpdated
Wed 27 Apr 2005, 5:24 AM AEST

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Hundreds of people were evacuated with nearly 50 taken to hospital. (File photo)

ABC TV

It is two months since Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport was plunged into full emergency mode after mystery illness swept through the Virgin Blue terminal, and authorities are none the wiser as to its cause.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the terminal, which was shut down for eight hours at a cost running into millions of dollars.

Nearly 50 people were taken to hospital, while fire officers wearing protective suits tried to determine whether it was an accident or something more sinister.

Even after a subsequent investigation by Victoria's Emergency Services Commissioner the cause of the scare remains unknown.

Now informed speculation is gathering strength that in potential terrorist hot spots like airports, people are now in a mood to be alarmed to the point of mass hysteria.

Those closest to the unprecedented chain of events that led to the evacuation of Melbourne's south terminal and disruption of air traffic for two days are starting to wonder about how things snowballed so quickly.

Melbourne Airport chief executive Chris Barlow says he suspects some people were not that ill.

"Look, I'm not a doctor, you'll have to ask the medical people what the real response is, but having spoken to some of them, it is certainly along those lines," he said.

However, some of the evacuees were physically ill for up to five days after the event, but that was not the case for all the others.

Amanda Morgan from the Australia Psychological Society says it sounds like mass hysteria, in that people actually developed real symptoms in response to something that was not there.

"If you believe, though, that there is something terrible that is causing those symptoms, you can become very frightened and other people in fact can then catch that fear," Ms Morgan said.

"In the post September 11 climate, airports it seems, are dealing with a heightened sense of anxiety and fear amongst staff and passengers.

"In this case some of them were convinced a dangerous gas at Melbourne airport was striking them down, though no evidence was ever found."

Victorian Emergency Services Commissioner Bruce Esplin says mass hysteria is a diagnosis that is far more easily made after the event and the emergency services have got a responsibility to protect public safety.

"Look, I think people seeing people collapsing, fainting, probably vomiting, seeing emergency services in protective clothing would make anybody nervous and encourage them to seek reassurance," he said.

"I think that's probably a contributing factor to the number of people that presented to ambulance officers and were assessed and in some cases taken to hospital for a short duration."

Mr Esplin has called for a streamlining of services in any future airport emergency and a better flow of information to the public to avoid chaos.

"There was no impact on public safety," he said.

"I think some of the communication circumstances left the impression that the event wasn't well-handled and I think that's an area that needs to be tidied up."

Melbourne and other airports around the country are now reviewing their emergency plans.